TACs for next year’s Atlanto-Scandian herring and blue whiting fisheries have been set. Now that the Icelandic share of these quotas has been decided, it’s possible to calculate that 33,600 tonnes of Atlanto-Scandian herring and 20,000 tonnes of blue whiting are allocated to HB Grandi. Taking into account transfers of quotas held over from the current year, the company has slightly more than the allocated quotas, with 36,700 tonnes of Atlanto-Scandian herring and 24.300 tonnes of blue whiting.
According to the agreement between coastal nations with fishing rights on these stocks, the TAC for Atlanto-Scandian herring next year is 1,643,000 tonnes , of which 238,400 tonnes falls to Iceland. The decision has been made to set the blue whiting TAC at 590,000 tonnes, with a reservation that this depends on the TAC being agreed by the NEAFC fisheries committee, which gives Iceland a share of 95,700 tonnes of blue whiting next year.
According to Ingimundur Ingimundsson, manager of HB Grandi’s pelagic vessels, the company can hold over 3106 tonnes of Atlanto-Scandian herring to next year, so that the company’s three vessels will have 36,720 tonnes to catch in 2009. 4246 tonnes of blue whiting can be held over, giving the HB Grandi fleet a total of 24,285 tonnes to catch next year. By comparison, HB Grandi had a 31,000 tonne Atlanto-Scandian herring quota this year and the blue whiting catch of the company´s vessels was 26,000 tonnes.
